Monday, 1 June 2015

Ashton Carter to face Indian demand for engine technology

The
US-India defence relationship needs an engine to drive it, say leaders on both
sides. But there are different perceptions on what that engine might be.

Americans believe
the engine should be the “Defence Trade and Technology Initiative” (DTTI), a high-level
committee of officials from both sides that moots projects for working together,
and removes bureaucratic roadblocks. In January, when President Barack Obama met
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, they “emphasized the ongoing
importance of the (DTTI) in developing new areas of technology cooperation”,
according to a joint statement issued at that time.

Indian officials
are focused on another engine --- the General Electric Aviation (GE) F-414 jet
engine that will power a more powerful version of the Tejas Light Combat
Aircraft (LCA), the Tejas Mark II. The Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO)
wants GE to help it up-rate the F-414 engine to power India’s futuristic
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), which is still on the drawing board.

So central
is engine technology to India’s high-technology expectations from the US, that
it was specifically cited after the Obama-Modi talks. The joint statement said
that, on January 22, the DTTI agreed to “form a working group to explore
aircraft carrier technology sharing and design, and explore possible
cooperation on development of jet engine technology.”

Yet, the US
technology control regime, which guards cutting-edge knowhow tightly, continues
to treat jet engine technologies as sensitive and commercially valuable. Washington
readily sold India the GE-404IN engine that powers the Tejas Mark I with 83
KiloNewtons (KN) of thrust. It also permitted the more advanced F-414 --- which
will provide the Tejas Mark II with 90 KN of thrust --- to be built near Pune after
GE won a contract for 99 engines in September 2010.

But India
wants cutting-edge. Defence ministry sources say they want GE to partner the
DRDO in upgrading the F-414 to deliver 110 KN of peak power to the AMCA,
allowing its twin-engines to deliver 220 KN of peak power to the fighter.

GE is sees
enormous commercial benefits in this co-development, which would capture the
engine market for 200 Tejas and 200 AMCA. Since a fighter engine’s life is
about 1,500 hours and the aircraft itself lasts 5,000-6,000 hours, each fighter
consumes 3.5 engines during its service life. GE is looking at supplying 700
engines for the Tejas and 1,400 for the AMCA over their service lives.

Yet,
developing an advanced F-414 engine in India would require GE to part with valuable
technologies, particularly in the high-melting-point alloys that make the
combustion chamber. Engine designers say an output of 90 KN requires the
combustion chamber to be built of materials that withstand temperatures of
1,800 degrees Kelvin. Achieving engine output of 110 KN would generate 2,000
degrees Kelvin in the combustion chamber. Washington remains reluctant to share
these technologies, even after committing to jointly exploring cooperation.

“The DTTI
should facilitate US permissions, especially with a working group in place for
engine technology. But we are getting signals this may not happen”, says a top
DRDO scientist.

Indian
officials see advantage in dealing with GE through government-to-government
channels, a more flexible and faster mechanism. There is also benefit in having
GE as a single partner for Tejas Mark I, Mark II and AMCA engines, which GE
keenly wants too. Even so, Indian officials say that US government foot-dragging
might leave no choice but an international tender that brings in European companies
like Snecma and Eurojet.

At stake
here is the Indian military and civil aero engine market, which internal DRDO
estimations reckon to be worth Rs 3,50,000 crore over coming decades.

“How the
Americans react on Wednesday will tell us how serious they are about technology
partnership with India”, says a top defence ministry bureaucrat.

“So far
they have treated the DTTI as a channel to help American companies to bypass
competitive procurement and multi-vendor tenders. But we will allow that only
when there are clear technology benefits for India”, he added.

Before his
meetings in New Delhi on Wednesday, Carter will be stopping at Visakhapatnam on
Tuesday, on his way in from Singapore, where he will visit the navy’s Eastern
Naval Command. With the “joint working group” also exploring US cooperation in
building India’s next aircraft carrier, INS Vishal, Carter will listen keenly
to his briefings on India’s operational doctrines.

Besides the
two working groups, the DTTI has committed to US-India cooperation in developing
and manufacturing four pieces of military equipment as “pathfinder projects”.
These include the Cheel micro-drone that infantry platoons can launch to view
the battlefield; roll-on, roll-off kits for the C-130J Super Hercules transport
aircraft, which are changeable interiors that allow the C-130J to be quickly
configured for different missions, e.g. para-dropping, cargo-carrying, medical
evacuation, etc; a mobile electric hybrid power source for various
utilisations; and protective clothing for soldiers operating in a nuclear,
chemical or biologically contaminated battlefield.

Carter
played a leading role in establishing the DTTI when then Defence Secretary Leon
Panetta proposed it in June 2012. He co-chaired the DTTI along with former
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon. The DTTI is now cho-chaired by Frank
Kendall, an Under Secretary of Defence; and India’s defence secretary, G Mohan
Kumar.

14 comments:

An interesting article that went completely wonky at "fighter engine’s life is about 1,500 hours".

You're thinking of Russian engines that have miserable service lives and MTBOs even for their latest products. In contrast, Western types have have been able to match and very often exceed the service life of the airframe, for decades now. The latest F135 engine (on the F-35) is guaranteed to an equivalent of 8,000hrs of operations (NATO AFs clock usage in engine cycles not hours).

Our Mirages are another apt example of that. Thirty years of operations on the same engine. With no re-engening included in the ongoing MLU, the engine will continue to run for another 15 years.

Well, Carter may/may not agree to share the engine technology. It shouldn't be taken with such intense expectation. As it is, there are many engine manufacturers which are salivating at this prospect of nearly 60 billion usd market. GE's loss would be their fortune. So let it become an open tender because that's how you come to know that F-18 is inferior to Rafale. Let the best engine and better firm win the engine contracts too.

Submarines and jets are game changers, so they need to be the highest tech available. German and Japanese subs are the among the best available and US jets or the tech are the best options. India should get these weapons for its defense.

If I were Ashton Carter, I WOULD NOT GIVE AN IOTA OF MY TECH SECRETS !!

Seriously, are we fooling ourselves ? Why should we expect the US to just give away their top-secret technologies to India ? They've spent decades and many billions of dollars in perfecting this technology. They have the absolute right to keep the cards close to their chests, and only export the finished product i.e. the GE-F414 engine.

If India thinks it will threaten the spectre of deteriorating relations, were engine tech. not be handed over to them, its dead wrong. Keeping your top-secret technology -- for which you've laboured hard -- is your right, and gives your nation a well-deserved technological and military edge.

The US can read the riot act to India, and tell it to bugger off.

____________________

What will eventually happen is what happened in case of the older GE-F404. US will only export these to India (without Tech. transfer) for its Tejas Mk.2; American engineers will help in their integration on a new fighter jet. There won't be any issue over spare parts though, unlike in case of Russian hardware, which was a nightmare (pun intended).

Sir,According to the website of GE. ( http://www.geaviation.com/engines/docs/military/datasheet-F414-Enhanced.pdf) they have aleatory developed a 116 KN. thrust class F414 engine. Named F 414 enhanced engine ! So they have the technology but whether they will share it with us or not is another question ! Just for a info. Gripen's engine is licence built. ( Swedish Volvo licence make) So technology sharing is nothing new to GE. Another point " fighter engine’s life is about 1,500 hours" that may be true for Russians engines like RD 33 ( Mig 29 ) but not so sure about the western engines ! It is just assumption. Though the TBO. of of western engines is around 1000 Hrs. But they overhaul the engine not changing !Regards.

Mr Shukla, a nice article as always but you have a glaring mistake in your assessment of modern western engine life. The General Electric F414 engine has a long turbine life that is designed around the airframe itself. The overhauls for the existing of the shelf General Electric F414s has been set at approximately 4000 cycles, which translates to between 3000 and 4000 hours of average fighter use. A cycle can be anywhere between 1 hour to 1.5 hour depending how many throttle movements are performed etc. Once the engine is overhauled it is inspected again at 6000 cycles (or an additional 1500-2000 hours of usage), and then overhauled as and when required. The west has long required jet engines for high end combat aircraft to have a life that tracks well with the airframe design life.

Early in this Century, GE developed a new compressor for the GE F414 family that would have extended the overhaul period from 4000 cycles to 6000 cycles (approximately 5000-6000 hours of use) and have been offering this as the Enhanced Durability upgrade option for existing GE F414 engines. The larger engines for the F-15 and F-16 family have already been upgraded to 6000 hour overhaul.

The higher thrust engine that India is seeking, will reduce the overhaul from 4000 hours to 2000 hours since the thrust increase from 22 thousand to 26 thousand is achieved partly because if higher temperatures in the core, however the overall life of the engine should remain unchanged (just more maintenance would be added because of higher performance).

- MTBO of a GE 414 engine is 2000+ hours and several programs are under-way (EDE) to increase this to 4000 hours and beyond.- Wet Thrust rating of the F414-GE-INS6 (LCA Mk2 power plant) will be in the high nineties KN range. Dry thrust will be near 68 KN.- GE has already developed an EPE (Enhanced Performance Engine) version of GE 414 which provides 20% thrust increase (80 KN Dry & 114 KN Wet Thrust) by using a two stage blade-disk fan. The other option is to increase MTBO in lieu of the increased thrust. There was also an earlier version called the EDE (Enhanced Durability Engine) which provided a 15% thrust increase.

Also, Wet thrust is not a very useful concept as it is only used upon emergency. Fuel consumption for producing Wet Thrust is on an average 6-8X over Dry thrust. Not sure why Indian website salivate over wet thrust.

Can you share what happened to the Indian jet program (Kaveri)? Last i heard, it was producing lesser-than-designed-thrust and was overweight by 150 kgs but India had developed certain key jet engine technologies!!! Why isn't the Kaveri being put on a Mig 29 and tested big time??

India always aspired to get technology from abroad for defence equipment. The expectations appears to be more from western countries including US. During last decade, a majority of defence contracts have been finalized with American companies especially Boeing & Lockheed with 30% Offset. A lot of contracts also have been signed on Govt to Govt basis. Govt of India pays 15-20% extra for Offsets. Insignificant technology or work has come to India in the name of Offsets. These should be investigated. It's high time Indian Govt should start dictating its terms and conditions to get technology and work in the areas we need. China has done it for commercial aircraft and developed its own regional jets.

DRDO bureaucracy is highly irresponsible and has done very little. LCA, LCH, ALH should be inducted in armed forces immediately on topmost priority. HAL and other defence PSU's should be put under administrative and functional control of Armed forces. Export of Steel, Aluminum and Titanium ores should be stopped and only finished state of material vis Rods, sheets, plates etc should be exported. Govt should create infrastructure to set up production facility for high grade materials required to produce high tech equipment.